The present invention relates to a foot-operated pedal which is tiltably attached to a lever, e.g., an accelerator lever of a vehicle.
With the tiltable pedal applied to a vehicle accelerator pedal, when it is desired to accelerate the vehicle, the pedal is depressed by the driver's foot and tilted relative to the accelerator lever which is rocked corresponding to the depression of the tiltable pedal. Thus, the front surface of the pedal may be kept at a desired angle, so that the driver need not tilt his toe corresponding the rocking motion of the accelerator pedal. Consequently, operation of the vehicle can be facilitated, serving to reduce the driver's effort.
One example of the conventional tiltable pedal is shown in FIG. 6. A pedal a has a pair of lugs b which are formed with mutually aligned circular through holes c and V-shaped slits d contiguous with the respective through holes c. An accelerator lever, not shown, is provided with a lateral pin e which is pressed into the through holes c laterally through the V-shaped slits d. Thus, the pedal a is tiltable about the pin e. A tilt spring, not shown, formed as a twist coil spring, is wound about the pin e, and both ends of the tilt spring engage with the accelerator lever and the pedal a, respectively, to urge the pedal a to a predetermined normal position.
Such a conventional tiltable pedal can be very easily mounted onto the accelerator lever. However, during an erroneous operation, e.g. when the driver's toe contacts the rear surface of the pedal and is then lifted upwardly, the pedal may be disengaged from the pin and the operation of the accelerator pedal becomes impossible.
To solve the problem, the V-shaped slits d may be eliminated. By this, however, assembly of the pin e and the pedal a becomes very troublesome, and the tilt spring cannot readily be engaged with the pin. Therefore, this solution is not practical. Thus, it is rather desirable to form the V-shaped slit in at least one of the lugs to allow lateral press-in fitting between the lug and the pin, even though the problem relating to disengagement of the pedal from the pin cannot be completely solved.